Infovore
by nienorbun
Summary: What would it really take for Kylo Ren to have an epiphany about the Dark Side? Only something which threatened to consume the Force in its entirety. Or, its no good wanting to be Dark Emperor of the Galaxy if there's no galaxy left. Shades of Cthulhu via the Atrocity Archives.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! This is my first Star Wars fan fiction, but I've done some others for mad max and vampires the masquerade. This came about from reading the Atrocity Archives and wondering about how the Dark Side would deal with Old Gods. Plus Kylo Ren appeals to my emo soul.

I live for reviews! even if you hate it, I'd like to know!

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Kylo Ren stood on the suspended walkway and gripped the railing with both hands as he watched the preparations below. The newly healing scar running across his face itched, and he was glad his masked helmet removed the temptation to scratch. That would've been undignified, and Kylo Ren was a man who worked hard to project an image.

Below him Stormtroopers and technicians scurried to and fro, making final tweaks and checks on the great machine which surrounded them. Tall flanks of dark metal rose up past the walkway, minutely adjusted to channel energies in a way that even Kylo, Leader of the Knights of Ren, most feared sith in the galaxy, found daunting. To cover this feeling he allowed himself a sneer under his mask, quietly exulting in the fact that this new and greatest war machine would finally wipe out the Resistance. It would also sever the last traces of connection to his family and the Light side, he reminded himself, feeling the surge of primal anger he always experienced when thinking of them.

That anger changed to annoyance as General Hux joined him on the walkway. He longed to crush the man's throat with the power of the force, but Hux was necessary to his plans, a useful ally for now.

"I think we're ready for the first test." Announced Hux briskly, assuming a formal stance. Only his eyes had colour in his long pale face, blazing chips of ice blue.

Ren nodded, not bothering to speak. His heart began to hammer in his chest, and he regulated his breathing and autonomic functions quickly. The greatest weapon this galaxy had ever seen, at his command (never mind Hux). Beside it the Deathstar and even Starkiller Base were nothing. He felt it fitting that it harnessed the power of light and turned it to darkness and nothingness. The power to control singularities. A power no lazer weapon or warship could stand against, one that could destroy whole systems, star and all. Like Starkiller Base, it drew its energy from a nearby sun, but the use it put that energy to was entirely different, and unthinkably more powerful.

His hold on the railing tightened and he tensed as his force sensitivity alerted him to the gathering energies. Just a small test this time, to confirm that the singularity could be created, controlled, and then dismissed. A deep thrumming permeated the facility, and sparks of blue light began to course and gather along the fangs of the machine circling the central containment field. Ren leaned forward eagerly, forgetting even his dignity for a moment as he felt power concentrating around him.

The sparks of light became brighter and more numerous, swirling faster and faster into a flat disk. The facility began to shake and he heard the creaking and groaning of the hardened materials under great pressure. The light and swirling grew more and more intense, concentrating greater and greater amounts of energy into a smaller and smaller area. Only powerful magnetic fields held that energy inside the central area, and Ren knew that even a small blip in that field would allow superheated plasma to spill out and engulf the entire facility, and probably destroy the entire planet it stood on.

A weaker-minded man might've feared this, and made sure he was not onsite for the preliminary test, mused Ren, but he had the strength of conviction in his destiny. He knew he would not die here, today. The thought made him conscious of the ache in the still healing wound of his side, where his father's pet wookie had blasted him. As always, his mind slid away hurriedly from the subject of Han Solo, and he turned his attention back to the spinning disk of plasma. In that moment, gravity reached its tipping point, and the disk of spinning light imploded into a dot of darkness so complete it hurt the eyes. For a moment Ren thought he saw the Dark side of the Force made visible, and then frowned as its perfect blackness was clouded by a shimmering expanding bubble. Doubt shook him, and only his grip on the railing stopped him from echoing General Hux's ignominious step backward.

In the blink of an eye, the simmering bubble was the size of a man, but before Ren even had time to register fear, it had burst, flinging sparkling, rapidly cooling plasma in all directions. He flinched as it hit the confines of the magnetic field and then dissipated in blooms of light. His gaze was drawn to the central point where the singularity had briefly existed and under the mask his eyes widened as he took in the still form that hung there. Confusion overwhelmed him as his mind made sense of the human figure which floated in front of him. But only for an instant, before the inexorable pull of gravity reasserted itself, and it started its plunge towards the ground.

Reacting instinctively Kylo Ren flung out an arm as he used the power of the Force to stop the still form in mid-air. The effort made his side throb, and he steeled himself against the pain as he slowly manipulated energies to bring the human to the walkway. He noted smugly that General Hux backed away further, his mouth open with shock.

Ren's breathing grew easier as he released the figure onto the surface of the walkway, and he knelt on one knee as he took a closer look. Lying there was a humanoid female, somewhere around young adulthood. Her naked skin was pale and smooth, flanks of mousey brown hair covering her face. Fascinated by this unexpected outcome, Ren leaned closer, one black-gloved hand outstretched to brush the hair from her temples, noting the fine-boned delicacy of her bone structure.

"Resistance tricks!" spluttered Hux behind him, breaking his concentration. "Spies and sabotage! Why didn't you see this coming?!"

Anger flaring, Ren stood up and wheeled around to face Hux with frightening speed. "Watch your tone." He hissed menacingly, his fist clenching around the handle of his lightsaber.

Hux swallowed and looked down at the prone figure, then up again at Ren. "You'll oversee the interrogation?" he said, his voice quavering with a mixture of fear and hatred.

Ren nodded curtly, letting his silence speak his disdain for the man.

Paying no further heed to his despised ally, he turned on his heel and with one fluid motion, knelt and picked up the girl, before striding away along the walkway. She was light in his arms as he held her, and he had to suppress the urge to sink his gloved fingers into her flesh, the excitement of unforeseen events buoying him up. Ever since his disastrous defeat at the hands of Rey and the Resistance, he had been slowly healing, building up his strength in anticipation of revenge. And now the opportunity to enter the fray and hurt his enemies was come again. He meant to take full advantage of it.

Kylo Ren watched impassively as his assistants prepared the Resistance woman for interrogation. At least, his stance was impassive, and his mask gave nothing away. But underneath that polished plastcrete surface, his brows were drawn down in an expression of confusion and irritation.

None of it made any sense; if the Resistance had the resources and ability to sabotage the Black Hole weapon, why wouldn't they just blow it up? Why insert some female? Was she a failed suicide bomber? His impatience began to rise as the questions piled up, and in spite of his controlled poise, the technicians obviously felt it, as they gave him fearful glances and hurried through the final tasks.

Finally the torture implements were ready (not that he intended to use much more than the Force, but it helped to create the mood of fear he was looking for), and the girl was clothed in a plastpaper gown – easy to rip, and wonderfully absorbent. She'd been only semi-conscious as she was clothed and bound, but now awareness was coming back into her green-grey eyes.

Ren stalked over to her slowly, his assistants fading out of the room as he did so. They knew they were unnecessary; even the strongest minds had difficulty preventing the Leader of the Knights of Ren from laying their secrets bare.

She watched him hazily, and shook her head as if to focus. Slinking the last step to her side, Ren leaned over her, using his bulk to intimidate her. His impatience precluded any toying with his victim, and he stretched out one black-gloved hand to her face as he summoned the power of the Force, and directed it towards her mind.

"You will tell me everything." He said quietly, pushing at the edge of her thoughts. Expecting resistance, he pushed roughly, and was surprised when she took a deep breath and let the natural barriers of her mind-self withdraw and dissolve.

 _That's why I'm here_. Her thought voice was quiet and hopeless. He sensed overwhelming sorrow and drew back for a second, forcing control over his ragged breathing.

She looked up at him, eyes now bright with sharp intelligence.

"Please don't," she gulped, "I'm here to warn you-"

She took a breath to keep speaking but Kylo Ren interrupted her with a thought blast powerful enough to choke the words in her throat. Overpowering her more normal reaction of resistance, he dove past the surface layers of her consciousness. He expected to be confronted by humdrum scenes of day to day life, punctuated by the memories he was looking for; thoughts of her mission, her superiors giving her orders.

Instead he found himself in a fragmented sequence of nightmare reels. He was deep enough in her psyche that he felt her remembered emotions as well as visual and auditory content. Fear and despair predominated as he stood in her body on a frozen darkened planet, looking up at the cooling cinder of a star. The deepness of space above them seemed very wrong, and it took him an instant to realise that all the stars and galaxies were red-shifted; a sky of blood.

Then the scene shifted and she/they walked along a long dark road to a facility which looked remarkably like his Singularity Weapon. They were flanked by solemn figures, all of which glanced up fearfully at the sky constantly. The sky was becoming darker and darker, galaxies and suns fading into blobs of dull rust. He could feel the cold in his bones, and realised with a shock that she and everyone with her were wearing environment suits. The mood of her thoughts was dull and hopeless; an existential wave of loss which prompted him to attempt to mentally pull away, trying to separate himself from her.

It didn't work, but caused a break in the memories. Now he stood upon a platform in the center of a containment field, naked. He/she looked down at her hands, shaking as she clenched her fists. The vision was blurred as she looked up at the surrounding people, all of them showing great sorrow and fear. Tears streaked many faces. Then one looked up, and gasped, and they all followed suit, mouths opening in horror. Kylo Ren felt a strong dragging feeling; a crushing weight of terror. He struggled mentally to stop her looking up, but he couldn't change what was only a memory.

As his vision was forcibly concentrated on the black sky, he screamed, knowing as he did so that he was playing out this woman's memories. Yet the scream echoed in his own psyche as he saw what bore down on them from above. With a supreme effort of will, calling on all his power of the Force, he managed to wrench himself out of her mind, staggering back against the interrogation room wall as he snapped back into reality.

"No! You have to see the end!" she cried out, straining forward against her bonds.

Shaken to his core, his self-control in tatters, Kylo Ren answered her with a Force push, strong enough to stun her into unconsciousness and make the metal of her interrogation table creak under pressure. He held his head in both hands, comforted by the smooth hard shell of his mask; but he was unable to rid himself of the horror of that last vision.

The sky had at last been inky black, completely without stars. And yet he had sensed a malevolent presence, as if eyes as big as galaxies stared down, pinning his frail mortal form to the ground. More than that, he had sensed that this was all that was left of that universe, that nothing was left except the platform he'd stood on.

Hauling himself upright, holding onto the wall for support, he stumbled out of the interrogation room, his mind whirling.


	2. Chapter 2

As he walked along the gleaming metal corridors, he found himself turning on his lightsaber and dragging it sizzling along the wall, where it left a long jagged scar. He had long used his weapon in this way to vent his emotions, and the First Order had learned not to bother him about it, lest they end up on the receiving end of the light blade instead of inanimate objects.

Wandering in the general direction of his quarters, he replayed the girl's memories in his head.

The residue of her thoughts left him feeling weak and horrified, and that made him angry. But he also felt a kernel of fear, the thought that maybe this was not a trick, and that everything he knew of was in terrible danger. Distractedly, Ren sunk the lightsaber deeper into the wall, ignoring the hissing pops of liquid metal that followed in his wake.

He reached an intersection in the corridors and wavered for a moment. Part of him just wanted to go to sleep and shut out everything he'd experienced that day. Another, larger part of him wanted to go to Snoke's audience chamber and call the old sith lord up on the holograph so he could get his advice. But the thought of telling Snoke that he had fled before finishing his interrogation stung, and before he knew it, he had turned on his heel and started striding back the way he'd come, flicking the switch to turn his weapon off as he was filled with a new sense of purpose. He would dive into the girl's mind again, and wrest the truth from her. This time she would not deflect him with these hallucinatory visions. Even as he thought this, a tiny worm of truth sniggered inside him, taunting him that he probably wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway.

The girl seemed to be dozing as he entered the dark metal room, but she roused quickly, almost as if she sensed his presence. She watched him with wary eyes, puffy with fatigue and emotion. Kylo Ren hovered in the doorway for a moment, unable to rid himself of the crawling sensation of horror as he remembered the vision he'd shared with her. Finally, feeling a little ridiculous, he strode forward, reaching out one black gloved hand.

The girl - her name is Alia, a small still voice inside him announced, and he thrust it aside ruthlessly - let her head drop onto her chest in an attitude of despair. Clenching her restrained hands into fists, she raised her face towards him, and he almost recoiled at the depth of emotion there.

"Watch to the end this time," she spat in a low voice, "Then you'll know it's true."

"Quiet." Ren retorted, thankful of the added gravitas his mask gave to his voice. "We'll see. We...will...see."

He clenched his teeth and pushed forward with his mind, steeling himself against any resistance or distractions.

Almost immediately he felt her drop her defenses and experienced a dizzying sense of vertigo as he found himself back on that platform. Above him the sky was black and filled with a brooding presence. He endured helplessly as she screamed in horror and then again in pain. The machine she was locked into seemed to be taking her apart molecule by molecule. He wasn't sure how it was possible but he had a visual impression from her perspective as her spaghettified, broken down form streamed into something darker than the surrounding malevolence. a black hole. There was a glint, and to his horror, he saw a momentary glimpse of his mask, watching what must've been the tiny singularity his doomsday machine had conjured.

Kylo Ren's stomach flipped with the realisation that it was he who had opened a gateway to this consumed universe. The sense of disorientation increased as he became more and more merged with the girl's consciousness. His point of view shifted, and now he saw through his own eyes, back through the pinpoint of the singularity. He saw that universe go dark, and something darker than that blackness reaching out with tendrilled fingers. Towards the gate that he'd created for it.

Suddenly light started to pour into the scene, obliterating all else. He felt himself losing awareness. Unsure if this was merely her memories or present time, he struggled helplessly for a moment and then plunged into oblivion.

Ren came to lying sprawled on the metal floor, his head throbbing. Alia lolled unconscious in her bonds, and as he pulled himself shakily to his feet Kylo felt again the surge of horror and despair that had dominated her emotions. He had no energy left for his usual shield of anger, and it was an effort to limp over to the side of the interrogation table.

For long moments he stood leaning over her, disturbed by a subtle feeling of connection. She looked how he felt; face ashen with strain even in sleep. Dark circles surrounded her closed eyes and her grey-brown hair was dark with sweat, clinging to her forehead. Absently his gloved fingers brushed the strands away.

The motion calmed him somehow, and he found his thoughts turning to what he'd experienced, searching for a plan of action. She couldn't be lying, not even subconsciously, he'd dived deep enough into her psyche to be sure of that. She represented a link to a dead universe, a warning of a threat so great he had difficulty comprehending it.

Kylo Ren was used to thinking in terms of the Dark and Light Side of the Force, and he'd allied himself firmly with darkness, violence and chaos. But what he'd seen in that other universe made all that seem trivial. He cursed inwardly at the petulance of his reaction; but how could he be a Sith Emperor of the Galaxy if it was a consumed husk? Nothingness seemed infinitely worse than chaos.

Coming to a decision, he turned away from Alia's prone figure, striding purposefully out of the room and along the gleaming corridors towards the holographic audience room. Supreme Leader Snoke must be told, and quickly.

"Your gullibility concerns me."

Ren's heart sank as the first words of Snoke thrummed and echoed through the gloomy chamber. A more than life-size holograph of the Sith master glittered and wavered in front of him, forcing him to crane his neck to look up.

Fear warred with anger inside him; he thought he'd explained the situation objectively, and he resented the implication that Snoke didn't trust his judgement. He was no longer a child; and only really still an apprentice because he hadn't disposed of his fearsome master. That day must come soon, he told himself. Kylo Ren had already killed one father, what was one more?

"She couldn't hide anything, not even subconscious programming. Those were real memories." Ren said defensively. "We must stop the tests."

The old Sith lord gazed down at him with lowered brows, eyes glinting. "No." He raised a hand to stop Kylo's spluttered response.

"You will bring the girl to me, and I will make sure. Continue the tests."

"You can't!" Protested Ren urgently. "That ..thing is waiting on the other side!"

Almost immediately he knew he'd said the wrong thing. Snoke frowned and leaned forward to gaze at Kylo Ren more closely.

"Can't?" His voice boomed, and Ren heard the malice in it. Now nothing he could say would convince Snoke of the threat - even if he did see it for himself in the girl's mind.

Lord Snoke was many things, but tolerant of dissention was not one of them. Over the years Ren had become aware that although the ancient sith lord could be manipulative and adaptable, he had a serious blind spot when it came to anyone questioning his will.

"As always, your will is law." Muttered Ren hastily, bowing low before the hologram.

Snoke nodded brusquely, and the shimmering holograph faded into the background gloom of the audience chamber.

Ren stood there in the dark, fists clenched, felt lost and alone; bereft of his malicious master's guidance. The threat was real, he was convinced of it. But he had made an error by challenging Snoke that way. And now the old sith lord's pride would doom them all.

Kylo Ren walked slowly back along the corridors to the bare cell he called a room. Its only adornment was the twisted and battered helmet on a low table. He hardly even noticed slumping to sitting on the edge of the bed, so deep in thought was he. He'd had crises of faith before, specifically around the time he'd killed his father. But he'd always stayed true to the Dark Side, to his master Snoke. Ren had seen his destiny was tied to that of the First Order, the Knights of Ren, and Snoke in particular.

But now...now he felt the siren call of rebellion. For the first time he contemplated that his goal of galactic domination might be better achieved alone. Absently, he picked up the battered helmet of his grandfather Darth Vader and let his fingers run over its jagged ridges and interrupted curves. It seemed as if his whole life had led up to this point, this decision. To stay safely within the confines of his master's teachings, or to act on his own experiences, his own judgement.

His fingers gripped the metal mask until his gloved knuckles turned white. No, to reject the girl's visions was to allow annihilation, and for all Ren's nihilistic angst, he wanted very much to rule over a galaxy, not to face the entropy of all he coveted.

In that split second his mind was made up; he jumped to his feet, and in spite of his fatigue, strode from the room with new purpose. He grabbed the first stormtrooper he saw, and barked his orders.

"Prepare the prisoner in interrogation room one and take her to my shuttle." He growled, confident that his orders would be obeyed, just as they always were.

The stormtrooper saluted smartly and jogged away to fulfill his command. Kylo Ren watched him leave for a moment, and then shook his head as if to clear it. For a moment he'd thought he'd heard a whisper in the back of his mind.

Maintaining an intimidating gait, he walked quickly, fingering the hilt of his lightsaber as he did so. The populace of the base moved unobtrusively out of his way as he passed, and he reflected on how their fear of him would allow him to put this mutinous plan into action.

As Ren paced towards the control room for the singularity weapon, his thoughts turned towards the girl, Alia. It annoyed him that he knew her name, that her arrival had changed the arc of his destiny. He needed her, for what was in her mind, nothing more. He found himself biting his lip underneath the mask as he told himself this. He could still feel that trace, that subtle line of connection. He feared he had plunged too deep into her mind; entangled himself irrevocably with her consciousness.

Before he knew it, he stood in the control room, high up on one metal wall, overlooking the fangs which had created the disastrous gate. As he entered the room, the technicians hovering over the control panels looked up apprehensively, and after one look at his glowering body language, all filed dutifully out of the room. Ren waited for them to leave patiently; he supposed he could've just killed them all, but this way might be better. Fear for their lives and experience with his black moods would keep them out of the room for a little while longer. They would expect him to destroy non-essential components, as he often did during his tantrums.

Playing the part, he depressed the button of his lightsaber with a cry of only half-feigned rage, and slashed indiscriminately at the control panels in front of him. Sparks flew and liquid metal sputtered and crackled as he worked, laying a smokescreen for his real sabotage. Shallow cuts at first, but drawing closer to his true goal. For a moment he hesitated, caught on a knife edge between a faked tantrum and true departure from his life with the First Order.

Steeling his will, he plunged the sizzling sword of light into the guts of the control panel, tracing a wide arc to obliterate all relevant circuits. His arm trembled with the effort of it, overcoming the resistance of metal and circuitry.

As a final touch he summoned the Force and pushed with all his might, crushing what was left of the control room into a concave semi-circle. An explosion of sparks bounced off his helmet. Satisfied with his work, he left the smoking room and stalked past the technicians and stormtroopers who were loitering just within hearing distance. The damage he'd done would take many days to repair, he'd made sure of that.


	3. Chapter 3

_There seems to be a glitch where when I update this story, it doesn't appear with the rest of the new updates. So I guess noone will ever see this, but it's fun to write. Cthulhu and Star Wars!_

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Every step of the way towards his command shuttle Kylo Ren tensed for the sound of alarms and shouts, blasters firing in his direction. Nothing happened, and as he neared the shuttle bay, he knew he had gotten away with it. A stormtrooper saluted him as he entered the bay. His only answer was to clench his hand tighter around the hilt of his weapon. Pilot control would've been informed that he was departing to see Lord Snoke; he just hoped the girl was already on board. His luck could only hold for so long.

He swept up the ramp of the shuttle, nerves still tingling in fear of discovery and attack, but all that greeted him was a pair of stormtroopers. One was standing guard in the entrance while the other manacled the girl to one of the fold-out seats against one wall. In the subdued glow of red and blue panel lights, her face looked wan and drawn, her eyes dark pools that glittered as they flicked in his direction. They'd dressed her in the simple black undersuit of a stormtrooper and it accentuated her slimness and the pallor of her skin.

Ren hesitated, feeling the intensity of her attention directed at him, then walked to the pilot seat and stood facing the stormtroopers.

"Get out." He ordered flatly, one hand resting on the hilt of his lightsaber. Normally they would've accompanied him, but he hoped that they would put this change of plan down to one of his moods. His relief was tinged by an undercurrent of disdain as they obeyed with alacrity.

Once they were gone, he took the pilot's seat and closed the shuttle doors, signalling to the control room to open the bay doors. Even as the massive metal doors slid open, revealing a pale grey sky, he expected alarms to start sounding. What would he do if they tried to stop him? Under the impassive face of his mask, he frowned at the thought of meeting his death here, at the hands of his former allies.

"Cleared for takeoff." Came the tinny crackle from the intercom suddenly, making Kylo Ren jump a little in his seat.

Reflexively he grabbed the joystick and started the process needed to fly out into that dull grey expanse. He was a natural pilot, something that he both took pride in and hated as a legacy from his father. As he cleared the hangar Kylo Ren blinked at the sudden increase in sunlight, its dull pale light dazzling after the darkness of the hangar interior.

He was just starting to relax when the blaring klaxons sounded, reverberating throughout the shuttle. Ren was a little surprised they had caught on so quickly; maybe they weren't as in awe of him a he'd supposed. Concentrating fiercely, he noted that only two scouts had been scrambled from above in pursuit, the rest being still in the bay. So, he had a chance, as long as he could get to lightspeed quick enough. Ren's fingers danced as he prepared the computer calculations for hyperspace.

Here again was another choice, one which could take him back to the bosom of the First Order or see him irrevocably cut off from his former life. His hand hovered over the winking lights of the panel as he experienced doubt. I must survive, he told himself. To become a true sith I must always put my interests, my survival, first. To do so, he would betray the First Order and Supreme Leader Snoke, just as he had betrayed his family and his first master, Luke Skywalker. Pressing his mouth into a firm line, he completed the final calculations, knowing as he did so that Snoke would seek to kill him for this.

The scouts were getting closer now, hoping to cut him off from the space needed to make the final leap to lightspeed. Kylo Ren waited until they were right on top of him and then released his counter-measures to confuse their tracking. As they fired at everything they could in a vain attempt to hit him, he sent the shuttle into a complicated series of manoueveres which would have made his pilot father proud.

Up and up he went, until the paleness of the sky became deeper and deeper blue, finally revealing a dark void dotted with untwinkling stars. The pursuing scouts were left far behind.

The shuttle shuddered slightly and then leapt into the crackling firmament of hyperspace. Kylo Ren had escaped the First Order.

That task completed, he turned his attention to his prisoner; the reason for this mad flight away from everything he'd sworn loyalty to.

She sat slumped against the wall, eyes closed. He could feel waves of hunger coming from her and realised that this was more than just his Force sensitivity. He could feel it as if it were his own gut. Kylo Ren shivered; studiously avoiding empathy had been his coping method for many of the terrible things he'd done. He'd invaded many minds, but never before had he felt this sense of connection.

Ren had heard of such things before of course; the most famous being the Force bond between Darth Treia and the Exile, back in the days of the Old Republic. A bond only severed when the Exile had killed Treia, and among Sith, a bond which was considered to have arguably lead to the great Sith's downfall in the first place.

Kylo Ren's eyes narrowed underneath his mask. He would kill her once she'd served his purpose. But for now, he needed her alive and healthy, lucid enough to transfer those visionary memories to someone else he would use to get what he wanted. The legendary General Leia Organa - his mother. Resistance leader and sworn enemy of Snoke and the First Order - and Kylo Ren. Both sides would die in the conflagration he planned, leaving him alone to claim the title Savior of the Galaxy, and thereby ruler.

Shaking himself free of his glorious dreams, Ren grabbed some nutrient paste from a dispenser in the main body of the shuttle and knelt in front of the girl - _My name is ALIA!_ \- screamed a voice in his head suddenly, forcing him to rock back on his heels. Quick as a cat he darted forward and seized her throat with the Force.

"Stay out of my mind." He hissed.

Alia spluttered, and he released his hold a little to allow her to speak.

"I can't." She spoke in a whisper, gulping against her battered throat, eyeing the paste needily.

Exasperated, especially since he knew this situation was his own fault, Kylo Ren dropped his hold and un-manacled her wrists, handing her the paste. He stood back, ready to attack again if she spoke in his thoughts, but she ignored him in her eagerness to gulp down the nutrient paste as quickly as possible.

Watching her, Ren wondered how much she could read, and whether he could do the same thing. Exerting his Force sensitivity he pushed against her mind, wary of sparking the nightmare visions.

Quickly she became aware of him and looked up, her eyes reflecting in an eerie way against the shuttle control lights.

 _How much can you see?_ He asked.

She winced. _Not much, mostly impressions._ She shrugged, _more when you're upset._

Kylo Ren clenched his fists. Just his luck to become entangled with the mind of a Force sensitive. A Force bond, and of the worse kind.

Alia licked the last of the paste from her lips, and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, sighing with tiredness. "It's why they sent me. Best chance of communicating with - " she smiled a wry smile and her eyes glinted, "someone from another universe." The smile faded. "Warning them."

Her mouth turned down and even through the fatigue Ren could feel the surge of distress from her. She was playing the stoic, but underneath he sensed she was on the edge of emotional breakdown, lost and alone.

An answering wave of empathy surprised him, and he suppressed it hurriedly, cursing his still lingering Light side tendencies. He'd hoped patricide would've destroyed that side of him, but instead he'd felt lately even more unstable, pulled this way and that by the conflict between Dark and Light in his nature.

"Sleep." He commanded brusquely, seeking to knock her out with a wave of his hand. For a moment she resisted him, and then with a sigh, collapsed into unconsciousness.

Feeling more at ease now she was no longer awake, Ren busied himself with making sure all was ready for the journey through hyperspace. He was also pleased to see that the stormtroopers had brought on board his grandfather's battered helmet and the deep bowl which contained his most worthy enemies' ashes; he'd forgotten to ask for them in his mad rush to get away.

Once more he checked to see that Alia was asleep, his gloved fingers hovering above her cheekbone as he reached out with the Force. When he was sure that she was, he sat cross-legged on the floor of the shuttle and began to focus his mind. Kylo Ren had no idea where his mother was, and he was sure she would do anything to hide that fact, but even in spite of the rift between them, there was still a trace of a connection between mother and son.

 _Mother_ , he called urgently, throwing his Force enhanced thoughts out into the void of space. _Mother, I need you!_

Over and over he called, channelling all his formidable skill and Force talent into the act. But after two hours, there was still no answer, and exhausted, he was forced to stop to rest. Weary beyond caution, he removed his helmet and ran his fingers through the messy dark waves of his hair, pinching the bridge of his long aquiline nose to stave off the encroaching headache he felt.

Leaving his helmet on the floor, Ren pressed a button in the wall opposite Alia and a series of foldout seats slid out to make a makeshift bed. Spartan, but better than the floor. Moving slowly, Ren lowered himself down onto it, setting his internal clock to give him a couple of hours of light sleep. As he rolled on his side, eyes closing, Alia was directly in his vision.

He felt a stab of emotion at her uncomfortable sleeping position; propped against the wall.

Ren closed his eyes, trying to ignore the urge to go over and adjust her sleeping form. For long minutes he tossed and turned, and then finally realised he would have no rest until he did. With an inarticulate growl, he clambered to his feet and pushed the wall buttons on her side to create the same bunk. Her body was already sliding that way as he gave her shoulder a gentle push, catching her head before it hit the metal slab. Strands of her brown hair spilled over his gloved hand, and he experienced a desire to touch it with his bare fingers.

Rejecting the yearning as fanciful, he let her head fall onto the flat surface and retreated back to his own bunk. Hardening his already icy heart, he resolved to dispose of her the moment she was no longer necessary. And with this dark thought, he finally fell asleep.

Spinning in the heart of the galaxy was darkness, as it had for billions of years. But now something new stretched out from its singular centre, pushing wide the aperture between universes and squeezing its massless bulk into the space between stars. Soon those fiery globes shone a little dimmer and the darkness of the void was a little colder.

Kylo Ren floated in the emptiness, observing the slow creep of black that dulled the shining spinning disk of a billion suns below him. It was so very very cold, but he hardly had time to register that fact before the scene changed.

Now there were no stars, nothing but inky blackness. A glimmer appeared, and if he'd felt himself to have a body, Ren would've recoiled away from the image. It was his father, looming out of the gloom in front of him, head bowed. The image of Han Solo raised its head, and Ren felt ice clutch his heart as he saw the darkly iridescent worms writhing over the eyeballs. The image grinned and reached for him with quavering pale fingers like tentacles.

In an act of denial Ren closed his eyes and the image disappeared, but only to be replaced by the image of his mother. The same eyes, the same reach; every time he closed his eyes another familiar face replaced it, horribly changed. Faster and faster the images came now, blurring into something that he couldn't quite see; didn't want to see.

Kylo Ren struggled desperately against the nightmare, and woke with a shout, springing up inside the comforting solidity of the shuttle. Sweat slicked his hair and his fingers trembled as he reached for his mask. Hurriedly he put it on, welcoming the feeling of having a barrier against the world. He glanced over to Alia to see if he'd woken her, but she was gripped in the throes of her own dreams. Her breathing was shallow and ragged, limbs twitching as if she struggled.

Like a laser bolt, Ren realised that he had been experiencing her nightmare. Acting on impulse, he strode over to her and shook her roughly.

"Wake up!" He commanded.

She jerked awake, staring up at him with haunted eyes, cringing away from his grip. Flushing and suddenly confused, Ren dropped his hands and stepped back. He covered his emotional state by sitting cross-legged on the floor again, focusing and calming his mind. He must channel his hate and fear, direct it towards his goals. He breathed deeply, ignoring the girl, and started his broadcast of thoughts towards his mother again.

At first he experienced the same frustrating lack of results, the feeling that his voice was too small to reach across the vastness of space. But then he felt a subtle change, an amplification that boosted and magnified his thoughts. Outraged, he realised that Alia was somehow channelling an increase of the Force, and tensed to strike her down for her insolence. As he did so, he heard a small quiet voice, a voice he hadn't heard in many years.

 _Ben?_

Kylo Ren winced at the sound of his real name, but expediency quashed pride, and he continued humbly.

 _Mother, I need you. Where are you?_

 _What's wrong Ben? Why now?_ Stop calling me that! Ren wanted to scream, but he dared not drive her away.

 _Something's coming, something terrible._ He directed his thought urgently. _I must show you._

Leia's responding thought conveyed all her regret and mistrust.

Ren drew on all his fear and horror and aimed it at his mother. She must believe him!

 _A neutral planet. Your choice._ He begged. Even with Alia adding her Force strength to his, the conversation was becoming overwhelmingly draining.

 _Dantooine._

That one word, and then she was gone, the connection broken.


	4. Chapter 4

I seem to be getting the no-review curse again; please leave a word or 2 if you're reading this, even if you hate it!

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Kylo Ren, who had once been Ben Solo, sat there cross-legged on the floor, head bowed, his clenched fists resting on his knees. His hatred for Leia ran deep and bitter, rooted in his sense of abandonment. It stung to ask for her help, but his plan demanded it. She was the only army he could call on.

There was the sound of soft footfalls and then someone squatting on their heels next to him. Ren had forgotten to re-manacle her, and now Alia was here. He looked up, her eyes level with his. The empathy he saw in them scared and angered him. Why didn't she fear him? He lifted one hand, ostensibly to strike her, and found himself instead tentatively resting his fingertips on her cheekbone.

"You should fear me." He told her quietly, letting his fingers drift down until they cupped her chin. The menace in his voice was tempered by something else, some other emotion he couldn't quite identify.

Alia`s answering tone was depressed. "I don't have much left to lose at this point, really."

Unbidden, thoughts of violence floated to the surface of Kylo Ren's mind. He'd killed so many, and known that he was taking all they had left to lose. Hidden by his mask, he gazed intently at her, challenging her to his memories of death and destruction.

He could tell that she'd received some of those impressions; his memories of burning lightsabers sizzling in the rain as he cut down his uncle's students were particularly strong. But her emotional reaction was muted and she answered him stare for stare. "You need me." She said flatly.

Ren nodded, and climbed to his feet, towering over her. "For now." He agreed darkly.

Abruptly her mood changed, despair sweeping from her over him like a physical wave, and she hugged her knees to her chest, letting her grey brown hair fall over her face.

"It's probably already too late." She said in a muffled voice.

"Repairs will take time," he tried hard to keep the pride out of his tone, and almost succeeded, "I made sure of it."

The hope in her eyes as she looked up at him made his heart clench. He'd seen many emotions in the eyes of people facing him; fear, hate, horror, despair. But never hope. It made him want to hurt her, to slice her into a smoking ruin. And yet...

Biting his lip underneath the iron mask, he swung away and busied himself with the drop out of hyperspace; a necessary move to change tack for Dantooine.

He could sense her watching him as he worked, but he determinedly ignored her. Eventually the calculations were completed; Kylo Ren blinked at the sudden darkness as the craft dropped back into normal space. He'd set the original destination far out of First Order space and now they were a long way from Dantooine.

He was painfully aware that even if Leia turned up there, the likelihood that she was preparing a trap for him was high. His hope was to intrigue her with what Alia had to show, at least for long enough to bargain for his freedom. It was ignominious, but he couldn't destroy the singularity weapon by himself.

"I hope you can summon those visions at will." He muttered, glancing at her sidelong.

She had been sitting staring out of the windows at the stars, but now she shook herself and gave him a considering look.

"Are you just going to drop me off there then?" She asked, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that she knew more about his familial relationships that he'd wanted to reveal.

Ren shook his helmeted head. It would not do to have someone force bonded to him in the hands of - well, anyone other than himself. He would allow her to convince his mother of the threat to all of them, and then he would kill her.

"If we can't stop it, I was going to ask you to anyway." Again she answered his thoughts rather than any spoken word.

It intrigued him that she would consider death at his hands preferable to the alternative, but then he remembered her nightmare with the luminous wormy eyes and decided maybe she had a point. Which reminded him that he had better get started to Dantooine before the First Order caught up to them; his craft had a tracking device and the Order couldn't be far behind.

Soon the calculations to Dantooine were done and the stars disappeared once again behind the crackling tunnel of hyperspace.

"I'm hungry." commented Alia, her face pale in the cast light from outside.

Ren paced quickly over to the wall and showed her how to get nutrient paste from the dispensary, taking some for himself. He hesitated as she started to eat, feeling as if removing his helmet would expose too much. What am I afraid of? He scolded himself, but he still experienced a moment of trepidation as he took off his metal mask and bit into the paste.

Alia looked up at him curiously. "So that's what you look like," she mused. "Not what I expected."

"What did you expect?" asked Ren in spite of himself, a little stung.

She shrugged and frowned slightly. "Someone more...hardened."

Kylo Ren felt his mouth twist with a combination of amusement and annoyance. His still boyish, sensitive features were both a boon and irritation to him. They'd enabled him to manipulate and surprise when he'd needed to, but they'd also caused him to be taken less seriously than he'd wished by the First Order and the Knights of Ren. At least his actions marked him as a true Sith, he thought. And now he had the scars of his encounter with Rey, the hated scavenger girl. He ran his thumb over the length of raised and puckered tissue; Alia's eyes followed the motion, but she said nothing.

There was a short silence as they both ate, watching each other warily. Finally Alia made a noise of frustration.

"I don't understand this whole Light/Dark side duality you keep thinking about." She regarded him with naked curiosity.. "Shouldn't you be happy about…" she shuddered, as if she couldn't bring herself to name it aloud, and then continued, "if you're evil?"

Ren looked down his aquiline nose at her contemptuously. "You misunderstand. Passion, strength, power, conflict; these are the Dark side." He barked a cynical laugh. "What you flee from is the final goal of the Jedi - ultimate Peace. It won't be a lie when there is nothing left."

Alia snorted and shook her head, obviously disagreeing with him. "Honestly, I don't care what you believe, as long as we both want to stop it."

Ren nodded dismissively and turned back to face the cockpit window, seeking to end the conversation. "You should sleep; we won't be there for a few hours."

She made a small sound, and he felt a surge of anxiety from her. Without having to ask the reason he stood up and retrieved a hypodermic sedative from a wall slot. She gazed up at him as he motioned for her to hold out her arm. Kneeling in front of her as she did so, his dark eyes locked on hers and he experienced a fleeting quickening of his pulse.

"No dreams." He explained tersely as he depressed the button. Relief and gratitude flooded her face an instant before her eyes closed. Ren caught her as she slumped against the wall, and lowered her back onto the slab bunk. He could feel the warmth of her body as it rested against his arm. He had to will himself to let her go, and he breathed deep to return his pulse to normal.

It's the Force bond, it's affecting my judgement, he told himself firmly, fists clenched as he returned to the pilot's seat. He assured himself that the small act of mercy served him too, freeing him from having to worry about her dreams.

But even knowing that she was in dreamless sleep, he felt uneasy about relaxing. Kylo Ren spent the rest of the journey staring into flashing blue and white hyperspace, seeking to channel that unease into the dark focus of controlled hate that had always served him so well in the past.

It was only when the control panel started to beep, alerting him to the proximity of their destination, that he ceased his efforts. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes, stretching the kinks out of his neck. And for his next challenge, all he had to do was convince his sworn enemies that they needed to work together, to take his word and Alia's memories as the truth of a greater threat...His jaw clenched as he realised that he hadn't seen his mother since before he'd killed Han Solo, his father. A true test for a Sith.  
Ren was tempted to keep Alia in a state of supine unconsciousness, but he needed her lucid. Moving briskly, he administered a minor amphetamine, observing as the grogginess left her features and she blinked into wakefulness.

"Are we there yet?"

He could tell she was trying to be flippant but it fell rather flat, partly because her voice was shaking and apprehension rolled off her in waves.

"Don't be afraid," he said, startled by the gentleness in his own voice, "they won't hurt you."

Embarrassed, he turned away quickly before she could reply, hands moving rapidly over the panels as he finished the drop back into normal space.

This time the darkness was lit by a blue white star, and rotating sedately in front of them were the pastoral blues and greens of the planet Dantooine. In ancient times it had been a seat of the Jedi Council, but it had been abandoned to grass and the herds which fed on that for many millenia. His mother Leia had told the Empire it was a rebel base, but that had just been a diversion.

"Its beautiful." breathed Alia from behind him, and he glanced over at her as she took the copilot's seat. There was a wistful light in her eyes, and he could tell that the sight sparked some memory of home in her.

Clamping down on any sympathetic nostalgia, he pursed his lips, wondering what to do next.

Ren considered reaching out with his mind again, but before he could prepare for that, the console flashed with an incoming message. They had found him first.

At the same time blinking lights notified him that he was flanked on both sides by incoming craft - x-wings.

"Identify!" crackled the disembodied voice through the speaker.

"Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren." answered Ren proudly.

"Follow the escort to the given coordinates. Deviate and be shot down." A string of numbers came up on the message display. Calmly, Ren punched them in and locked the course.

His fingers itched to attack his 'escort', but he ground his teeth and called on all his self-control. Beside him Alia hugged herself nervously, watching him with wide eyes.

"Is this going to work?" she asked, "are they really going to listen?"

Ren glanced over at her again. "To me, maybe not," he admitted wryly, "but to you, I hope so. On that everything depends."

Alia grimaced and looked subdued. Ren ignored her, concentrating on keeping the shuttle balanced between its Resistance escort. He tried not to think about what awaited him on the planet's surface. The sun was behind them as they banked and dipped under the broken cloud cover. The blackness of space turned to deep blue and then became lighter cerulean, revealing a gently undulating landscape of green plains.

Lower still they flew, and now Kylo Ren could see the moss covered outlines of a complex of structures, once long ago the seat of the Jedi Council. His mouth quirked at the hidden message behind his mother's choice of rendezvous. Neutral? Hardly.

He could see other craft and knew that he would be heavily outnumbered. If this meeting didn't go well, it would probably mean his death. Bleakly he realised that his failure would mean more than just his own life. I don't care about anyone else, he thought sulkily. All I care about is power, my own survival. Even as he told himself this, he thought of his mother as he had seen her in his nightmare and shuddered.

"Land on these coordinates."

Ren obeyed the static-hazed voice from the comm, vaguely surprised that they hadn't asked him to come out unarmed. Maybe his mother accepted that he would never leave his lightsaber behind. The shuttle settled exactly on the coordinates given with barely a tremor, and cut the engine. Silence descended on the shuttle cabin, and he took a deep breath and focused his mind for the ordeal ahead.

"Bring me my helmet." he ordered calmly.

Alia gave him a sidelong look, and then uncurled from the copilot's seat and grabbed the helmet from the metal wall seat. She turned it over in her hands for a moment, and then tossed it to him, destroying any semblance of obedience.

"You're more approachable without it." she commented.

"You can be convincing enough for both of us." he retorted haughtily, comforted by the hollow echo the mask gave to his voice as he lowered it over his head.

She frowned, and doubt crept over her face. "Wouldn't it be better to, you know, show them that you need them?"

Ren's laugh had a bitter undercurrent. "If my coming here alone hasn't done that, then we've already failed." He brushed his flank with his fingers, reminding himself of the newly healed wound under his clothes. What would he do if she - his nemesis Rey - was there?


End file.
